Transgenerational Effects of Di(2-Ethylhexyl) Phthalate on Anogenital Distance,Sperm Functions and DNA Methylation in Rat Offspring

Di(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (DEHP) is widely used as a plasticizer in the manufacture of polyvinylchloride plastics and has been associated with concerns regarding male reproductive toxicity. In this study, we hypothesized that maternal exposure to DEHP induces transgenerational inheritance of adult-onset adverse reproductive outcomes through the male germline in the F1, F2, and F3 generations of male offspring. Pregnant rats were treated with 5 or 500 mg of DEHP/kg/day through gavage from gestation day 0 to birth. The offspring body weight, anogenital distance (AGD), anogenital index (AGI), sperm count, motility, and DNA fragmentation index (DFI) were measured for all generations. Methyl-CpG binding domain sequencing was performed to analyze sperm DNA methylation status in the F3. DEHP exposure at 500 mg/kg affected AGD, AGI, sperm count, mean DFI, and %DFI in the F1; AGD, sperm count, and mean DFI in the F2; and AGD, AGI, mean DFI, and %DFI in the F3. DEHP exposure at 5 mg/kg affected AGD, AGI, sperm count, and %DFI in the F1; sperm count in the F2; and AGD and AGI in F3. Compared with the control group, 15 and 45 differentially hypermethylated genes were identified in the groups administered 5 mg/kg and 500 mg/kg DEHP, respectively. Moreover, 130 and 6 differentially hypomethylated genes were observed in the groups administered 5 mg/kg and 500 mg/kg DEHP. Overall, these results demonstrated that prenatal exposure to DEHP caused transgenerational epigenetic effects, which may explain the observed phenotypic changes in the male reproductive system.     

Commitment-based device-pairing protocol with synchronized drawings and comparison metrics

This article presents a new method for pairing devices securely. The commitment-based authentication uses a fuzzy secret that the devices only know approximately. Its novel feature is time-based opening of commitments in a single round. We also introduce a new source for the fuzzy secret: synchronized drawing with two fingers of the same hand on two touch screens or surfaces. The drawings are encoded as strings and compared with an edit-distance metric. A prototype implementation of this surprisingly simple and natural pairing mechanism shows that it accurately differentiates between true positives and man-in-the-middle attackers.     

基于词法特征的恶意域名快速检测算法

针对互联网中恶意域名攻击事件频发，现有域名检测方法实时性不强的问题，提出一种基于词法特征的恶意域名快速检测算法。该算法根据恶意域名的特点，首先将所有待测域名按照长度进行正则化处理后赋予权值；然后利用聚类算法将待测域名划分成多个小组，并利用改进的堆排序算法按照组内权值总和计算各域名小组优先级，根据优先级降序依次计算各域名小组中每一域名与黑名单上域名之间的编辑距离；最后依据编辑距离值快速判定恶意域名。算法运行结果表明，基于词法特征的恶意域名快速检测算法与单一使用域名语义和单一使用域名词法的恶意域名检测算法相比，准确率分别提高1.7%与2.5%，检测速率分别提高13.9%与6.8%，具有更高的准确率和实时性。     

In vivo Kinetic Biodistribution of Nano‐Sized Outer Membrane Vesicles Derived from Bacteria

Evaluation of kinetic distribution and behaviors of nanoparticles in vivo provides crucial clues into their roles in living organisms. Extracellular vesicles are evolutionary conserved nanoparticles, known to play important biological functions in intercellular, inter‐species, and inter‐kingdom communication. In this study, the first kinetic analysis of the biodistribution of outer membrane vesicles (OMVs)—bacterial extracellular vesicles—with immune‐modulatory functions is performed. OMVs, injected intraperitoneally, spread to the whole mouse body and accumulate in the liver, lung, spleen, and kidney within 3 h of administration. As an early systemic inflammation response, increased levels of TNF‐α and IL‐6 are observed in serum and bronchoalveolar lavage fluid. In addition, the number of leukocytes and platelets in the blood is decreased. OMVs and cytokine concentrations, as well as body temperature are gradually decreased 6 h after OMV injection, in concomitance with the formation of eye exudates, and of an increase in ICAM‐1 levels in the lung. Following OMV elimination, most of the inflammatory signs are reverted, 12 h post‐injection. However, leukocytes in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid are increased as a late reaction. Taken together, these results suggest that OMVs are effective mediators of long distance communication in vivo.     

Two-level intelligent modeling method for the rate of penetration in complex geological drilling process

The rate of penetration (ROP) model is of great importance in achieving a high efficiency in the complex geological drilling process. In this paper, a novel two-level intelligent modeling method is proposed for the ROP considering the drilling characteristics of data incompleteness, couplings, and strong nonlinearities. Firstly, a piecewise cubic Hermite interpolation method is introduced to complete the lost drilling data. Then, a formation drillability (FD) fusion submodel is established by using Nadaboost extreme learning machine (Nadaboost-ELM) algorithm, and the mutual information method is used to obtain the parameters, strongly correlated with the ROP. Finally, a ROP submodel is established by a neural network with radial basis function optimized by the improved particle swarm optimization (RBFNN-IPSO). This two-level ROP model is applied to a real drilling process and the proposed method shows the best performance in ROP prediction as compared with conventional methods. The proposed ROP model provides the basis for intelligent optimization and control in the complex geological drilling process.     

PSO优化多核RVM的模拟电路故障预测

针对模拟电路健康管理的特点，提出了一种基于PSO优化多核RVM的模拟电路故障预测方法。利用参数分析得到电路的输出频域响应作为特征，计算其与电路无故障标准响应的欧氏距离来表征电路元件健康值，将多个核函数线性组合，并用PSO优化多核RVM参数后的模型实现对各个时间点元件的健康值变化轨迹进行预测。仿真结果表明，该方法在小样本情况下，预测效果优于单一核函数的RVM模型，适用于健康管理中实时预测，具有较好的实用性。     

Reducing the complexity of distance measurement methods for circular turbo codes that use structured interleavers

The knowledge of turbo code's minimum Hamming distance (d_min) and its corresponding codeword multiplicity (A_min) is of a great importance because the error correction capability of a code is strongly tied to the values of d_min and A_min. Unfortunately, the computational complexity associated with the search for d_min and A_min can be very high, especially for a turbo code that has high d_min value. This paper introduces some useful properties of turbo codes that use structured interleavers together with circular encoding. These properties allow for a significant reduction of search space and thus reduce significantly the computational complexity associated with the determination of d_min and A_min values. © 2014 The Authors. International Journal of Communication Systems published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Multicellular Tumor Spheroids (MCTS) as a 3D In Vitro Evaluation Tool of Nanoparticles

Multicellular tumor spheroid models (MCTS) are often coined as 3D in vitro models that can mimic the microenvironment of tissues. MCTS have gained increasing interest in the nano‐biotechnology field as they can provide easily accessible information on the performance of nanoparticles without using animal models. Considering that many countries have put restrictions on animals testing, which will only tighten in the future as seen by the recent developments in the Netherlands, 3D models will become an even more valuable tool. Here, an overview on MCTS is provided, focusing on their use in cancer research as most nanoparticles are tested in MCTS for treatment of primary tumors. Thereafter, various types of nanoparticles—from self‐assembled block copolymers to inorganic nanoparticles, are discussed. A range of physicochemical parameters including the size, shape, surface chemistry, ligands attachment, stability, and stiffness are found to influence nanoparticles in MCTS. Some of these studies are complemented by animal studies confirming that lessons from MCTS can in part predict the behaviour in vivo. In summary, MCTS are suitable models to gain additional information on nanoparticles. While not being able to replace in vivo studies, they can bridge the gap between traditional 2D in vitro studies and in vivo models.     

随钻扩眼工具及技术研究

基于随钻扩眼技术优势的分析，研究了机械式、液压式和偏心式随钻扩眼工具执行机构和扩眼总成的机构原理，并介绍了国内所开展的相关研究。文章提出应加强现有工具的适应性和匹配性研究，发掘各类工具的优势。优化执行机构、扩眼总成和水力机构、重视底部钻具组合力学特性的分析是今后发展和完善随钻扩眼工具及技术的几个重要内容。实践表明，随钻扩眼技术在处理井下复杂情况、降低钻井综合成本、提高钻井速度、提高建井质量和安全性等方面具有显著的优势，随钻扩眼工具也正逐渐成为一种重要的石油钻井配套工具。